“My name is Sir Thomas Oliver,” he said, that iron sharpness to his tone again. It was clear by the look he continued to give Russel that he wanted him to remember that name. “Good day to you both and many good wishes upon your travels.”

“Thank you,” Lola said, then forced Russel to get moving. Serk let out an irritated neigh, slammed one hoofed foot on the ground a bit harder than was necessary, and started to move forward as well.

“Be cautious, miss,” Sir Thomas said, his gaze shifting for a minuscule second toward Russel. “Dangerous times.”

You have no idea, she thought to herself. Then she realized that with all the knights and soldiers around, maybe he actually did. It was almost curious to her that King Harrison had been able to respond so quickly to word of werewolves in Alcroft. She wondered idly how that had been possible. It had been a month since Gloucester, maybe a month and a half. Already gangs of human militia were roaming everywhere. People were whispering about war and werewolves. Wrexon had a heavy military presence. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought the king had known werewolves would be attacking soon.

“We need to get off the streets as soon as possible,” Russel whispered as they headed into the city. People, horses, cows, and soldiers bustled about everywhere. There were so many, Russel’s senses were being overloaded. Not only that, but he really didn’t like the interaction with Sir Thomas. Something about him made Russel extremely nervous. It was the look in his eyes mostly, like he knew or thought he knew Russel was a werewolf.

“Why don’t we find lodging and stay here for a night or two? I don’t want to give Sir Thomas any reason to doubt our story,” Lola said. “We can find a room, get off the streets, and maybe find a local restaurant. Then we can spend the morning tomorrow searching for shops to buy supplies that will last us until we get into Oclan.”

“You, dear wife, are full of great ideas,” he replied, still trying to sound as if the interaction with Sir Thomas hadn’t affected him nearly as badly as it actually did.

Lola knew he was teasing by calling her his wife but nonetheless, a small part of her had liked hearing him say that.

The pair spent their first hour inside Wrexon looking for a suitable stable for Serk to stay in while they were in the city. There were a few close to the entrance but most of those were booked solid. Eventually, they found one with decent pricing and left Serk to rest up and get some food and water. They needed some food and water themselves so they decided to put off the search for lodging in favor of finding a decent restaurant. There were a lot of choices here as well but again, most of the ones near the entrance of Wrexon were packed with people. They ended up having to walk quite far until they found a place to eat that wouldn’t take several hours for them to actually get some food. It was a cozy, quaint place called The Midnight Oil. It was sandwiched right in between a print shop and an apartment building. She liked the name immediately. She had always been more of a night person so she appreciated its reference.